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The Enemy Within
| }} Book Text It is curious that this tale has captured me so. It may be due to the nature of the story and my appreciation of tratorous tales, but something stronger seems to keep calling me back. I should try to investigate more about Sentry Selena. ~R.E. Sir, the full account of the night in question is included in this report, but I must put the acts of that fateful night within context. Selena's previously impeccable service record demands it. ~Sentry Bartle Sentry Selena had been a high knight within the Sentries of Passion, stationed her, at Freeport's Temple of Marr, for years. Sentry Calum was one of the Sentries of Passion under her. Two weeks before Lover' Moon, an attack was run upon our mighty temple by the followers of Hate. It was a swift and, I must admit, well exectued attack that could have been devastating to the Temple of Marr, had it not been for the heroic act of Sentry Calum. As Sentry Calum recalled later, "I had just struck down one venomous attacker, when I caught the sight of a spell blast heading directly for Sentry Selena. She was entwined with an attacker herself, and could not see the spell that was fast approaching her. I flung myself at the spell without a second though." Sentry Selena had supported this tale, claiming, "I turned and saw Sentry Calum take the brunt of the spell. Behind him a Priestess of Hate had then appeared. Casting the spell must have interrupted her invisibility spell. If it were not for his courageous act, I would surely have fallen to the Priestess of Hate." She went on to say, "I knew not if he had been taken by Drinal or if he was just unconscious, but his heroic act inspired me. I was renewed and fought with an unbridled passion from that moment. The tides of the battle were quickly turned. He is to be commended." But, of course, now one has to wonder if she was not hit by it or affected by it in some way. It was never established what type of spell it was that Sentry Calum intercepted. What we do know is that, although Calum showed no sign of life, we woke refreshed and fully healed, as if he had been simply napping. He told all, "I had felt the spell burn and wrench my body with searing pain, and then darkness swallowed me up. I know not how long it lasted, but it was broken by a vision. In it, a woman of unequalled beauty and grace enveloped me in her lifht and laid a kiss upon my forehead. Her voice was like a song, but I can not recall the words she spoke." An unusual agitation was noted within Sentry Selena upon the times that she overheard Calum recalling his tale to fellow knights or the initiates within the temple. Most dismissed it as a show of her discomfort at being reminded of the unfortunate attack, but now we must bring this into question. Then, upon the night of the Lover's Moon, as the temple was in the height of celebration with much wine and song, Selena and Calum both excused themselves. They were both fully aware that a tryst would violate their vows of dedication to the Holy Siblings, but evidence collected from within her private quarters leads us to conclude such an act occurred. It was during the dead of night, while most of the temple's occupants, guards, priests, and pilgrim celebrates alike, were sleeping away the effects of heavy libation and revelry that the guards on duty later reported having heard a sudden cry within the temple. I can attest to this, as I heard it with my own ears. It was the cry of ultimate suffering! The sudden sound of anguish carried far upon the still night air and the halls of the temple reverberated with the pain in that single scream. Those of us on guard set out to find the source of the cry, but we were finding it difficult, due to the echoing effect. A young pilgrim man, celebrating his first Lover's Moon with another, awoke from his slumber in one of the upper floor alcoves. He was about to dismiss the cry as a trick of his ears or that of a fellow reveler when he spotted a woman on the main floor in the sentry guard armor approach the temple's grand shrine to the Goddess of Love. She laid an object upon the shrine, but he could not make it out, as her position blocked it from his view. He then heard her say, "He is now all yours, Erollisi!" As she stepped away, he was able to identify the object - it was a man's head! But the pilgrim must not have been the sole witness, as a male sentry attacker her from the side. He was later identified as Sentry Plossen, another knight on duty that fateful night. She cut the attacking guard down quickly, the violence of which frightened the pilgrim fiercely. He froze, stricken with fear and shock, as he watcher her walk from the shrine, laughing and taking pleasure as she cut through every guard she encountered. The trail of bodies she left was shocking, even to the most seasoned. In Sentry Selena's quarters, a grisly scene awaited our discovery. Sentry Calum had been stabbed repeatedly through the heart and his decapitated body left disrobed and discarded on the floor, framed in a heart drawn with his own blood, his head resting amongst the offerings upon Love's grand shrine, defiling it. Sentry Selena has not been seen or heard from since that night. I have full confidence that, if anyone, a contingent of your Knights of Truth will be able to pick up her trail and deal with her in the appropriate means. May the Holy Twins bless you. ~Sentry Bartle